Book icon

Book

Logodaedalus: word histories of ingenuity in Early Modern Europe

Abstract:
Before Romantic genius, there was ingenuity. Early modern ingenuity defined every person—not just exceptional individuals—as having their own attributes and talents, stemming from an “inborn nature” that included many qualities, not just intelligence. Through ingenuity and its family of related terms, early moderns sought to understand and appreciate differences between peoples, places, and things in an attempt to classify their ingenuities and assign professions that were best suited to one’s abilities. Logodaedalus, a prehistory of genius, explores the various ways this language of ingenuity was defined, used, and manipulated between 1470 and 1750. By analyzing printed dictionaries and other lexical works across a range of languages—Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, English, German, and Dutch—the authors reveal the ways in which significant words produced meaning in history and found expression in natural philosophy, medicine, natural history, mathematics, mechanics, poetics, and artistic theory.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

Actions

Access Document

Files:
Publication website:
https://upittpress.org/books/9780822945413/

Authors

More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
HUMS
Department:
Medieval & Modern Languages Faculty
Oxford college:
Magdalen College
Role:
Author


Publisher:
University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:
2019-01-15
ISBN-10:
082294541X
ISBN-13:
9780822945413


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
1053009
Local pid:
pubs:1053009
Deposit date:
2020-09-09
ARK identifier:

Terms of use


Views and Downloads






If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record

TO TOP